2/18/04 Cards, Rich's Cooking, and Take-out w/Brian, Peter, Rich, and Me:

When I came to New York City 6 years ago, I knew very little of the many cuisine's it offered. And even though I was surrounded by them for years, I would often not open up to a new kind of cuisine until specifically introduced by someone who happened to know something about it, and dragged me along. Louie showed me Greek. Sarah showed me Indian. And with each new love affair of ethnic foods, I became more open-minded overall.

Brian, on the other hand, who was closed minded about New York City itself for a long time, but who opened his mind enough to take the plunge, started living in New York City less than a year ago. He is still closed-minded about many foods, relying, in most cases, on fast food. Nearby fast food chains, to my complete disgust, were included as a factor in which neighborhoods he looked for a new apartment a few months ago. He has made some progress, even since then, but when presented with the option of having Rich cook for him this evening, which most people who've seen these photos (and who are not watching their cholesterol) would jump at, I'm sure, but Brian hesitated and brought his own sandwich.

None for you, Brian.

He did try some of the ricotta pasta, and enjoyed it, but wasn't excited about it enough to want his own bowl. To each his own. I LOVE it.

I think Brian has a tunafish sandwich. :) On the opposite end of the spectrum, Richard would scoff at a tuna fish sandwich as too pedestrian to have (especially on white bread) under any circumstance in which the tuna fish sandwich was not the last remaining meal on earth. I like to think I sit somewhere in the middle, able to eat, and appreciate both the tuna fish on white (which I grew up on) and the restaurant-fancy Italian home cooked feast.

Oh, and in other news, Peter did finally get his brand new spectacles from Robert Marc, and he loves them dearly. But, of course, while in my company, he became afraid that they had an imperfection, and squinted at it, as hard as he could, trying to make out a scratch. My feeling is, if you have to struggle to see if a scratch might faintly exist... who cares?

Peter does.

Brothers with new glasses!!!

We found that we have to look into the camera in the mirror to make the picture look normal, even though in real life, it feels like it will look better if we look at ourselves.

Rich makes a LIGHTLY cooked tuna steak, cut and stacked.

He prepares a blood-orange citrus sauce to serve with it.

Peter consumes the presentation.

And we play.